What is a Gender Mainstreaming Pilot District? Transforming Housing and Neighborhood Design

Sustainable gender-aware housing and neighborhood design cuts down on transportation and improves the quality of people's lives

Nearly 12 years ago, Vienna did something transformative: The city designated the district of Mariahilf as a "gender mainstreaming pilot district." Gender analysis would become integral to urban planning in this test area. The results? Housing units and community spaces designed to support child and elder care. Sidewalks and Crutches

Vienna's Gender Mainstreaming Pilot District (Mariahilf) widened sidewalks and removed barriers (such as staircases) to support pedestrians.

"Taking gender into account better serves the needs of women and men across the life span. Adding a "gender dimension" to design of housing, parks, and transportation improves the quality of "everyday life," explained Stanford Professor of History of Science Londa Schiebinger.

Vienna's urban planning is an example of what Schiebinger calls a "Gendered Innovation." According to Schiebinger, a Gendered Innovation harnesses the creative power of sex and gender analysis to discover new things. (Other examples of Gendered Innovations from Schiebinger's project include improvements in: heart disease in women, osteoporosis in men, public transportation, and water infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa.)

In the case of Vienna's urban planning, integrating gender analysis into the architectural design and urban planning processes ensured that buildings and cities serve the needs of all inhabitants. This approach includes special consideration for women and men of different ages, employment patterns, socioeconomic status, and care-giving obligations.

Housing to support care work

Traditional urban design tends to separate living spaces and commercial spaces into separate zones, which results in large distances between homes, markets, schools, and other urban spaces. Often, the distance between these spaces is burdensome for people combining employment with care responsibilities. In response, urban designers created housing and neighborhoods with on-site child-care and elder-care facilities, shops for basic everyday needs, and often primary-care medical facilities.

Vienna’s new housing development named "Frauen-Werk-Stadt I," or FWS-I, was designed with gender in mind.

Image of housing with cantilevered kitchens

In the FWS-I floorplan, kitchens are cantilevered and extend beyond the footprint of the building to allow an unobstructed view of open spaces for caregivers to monitor children at play.

Created by architect Franziska Ullmann, FWS-I has 359 housing units with childcare facilities to minimize the distance parents travel to take their children to daycare. The housing complex supports childcare by enabling line-of-sight contact for parents watching children between interior work spaces (such as kitchens) and outdoor recreational areas, and by providing well-lit ground-level storage for baby strollers, bikes, and other bulky items. FWS-1 also includes commercial space for shops within the housing block, medical facilities, and a police station

Another housing project in Vienna called "In der Wiesen Generation Housing" has mixed complexes with apartments for the elderly. By incorporating different apartments of different cost in a single complex, families have the option of having elderly parents living in the same building but in not their own apartments. As residents become older they can, if needed, pay for extra assistance in their own home. The entire building is accessible for the handicapped. Low windowsills allow those in wheelchairs or beds to have views into green spaces.

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